In fact, Marc Skinner's side currently sit one point in front of the Blues in the Women's Super League table, having recorded 10 wins from their opening 16 league games of the campaign.

They have impressed in Europe too. Last week saw them defeat Atletico Madrid 2-0 in the second leg of their Women's Champions League play-off, as they advanced to the quarter-final of the competition with a 5-0 aggregate win.

Chelsea supporters may have held last May's 3-0 Women's FA Cup final victory in mind going into Sunday's clash, but Man United have made some big improvements since then, a fact that was demonstrated when they held us to a 1-1 draw at the Progress With Unity Stadium in early October.

Bompastor understood that this would be a closely-matched encounter, and set about giving her players the best chance possible to progress to the FA Cup quarter-final by devising a robust tactical plan.

Here's a look at how we pulled off that 2-1 victory at Kingsmeadow on Sunday...

Packing the midfield and exploiting the channels

Looking at the way Skinner set up his side against Atletico Madrid the previous Thursday highlighted Man United's narrow shape with most of his side concentrated in central areas of the pitch.

Chelsea's average positions against the Reds on Sunday – depicted in the graphic below – show how Bompastor deployed Keira Walsh (number 30), Erin Cuthbert (eight), Sjoeke Nusken (six) and Lauren James (10) in and around the centre circle to prevent the Blues from getting overrun in the midfield.

Walsh and Cuthbert were effective in breaking up the opposition's attempt to control their favoured area of the middle of the park, as the England star finished the match with the most ball recoveries of any outfield player (seven) and her Scottish counterpart just behind her with six.

Relentless pressure

As the home team, it was important the Blues came out of the blocks strongly from the beginning, and the momentum graphic below shows we did just that.

Aside from three brief spells of Man United pressure, Chelsea had the most forward motion of the entire first half, even though the deadlock wasn't broken until the 78th minute of the match.

Even though the visitors had more periods of momentum in the second half, having held firm in the crucial opening 45 minutes saw the Chelsea team grow in confidence, allowing us to keep pushing forward in extra time, even though we had been pegged back just three minutes after Sam Kerr had netted the opening goal.

Buurman keeps Park quiet

Jess Park showed her quality when she crashed a shot from distance onto the crossbar in the 65th minute, which is why Veerle Buurman was tasked with keeping the England international quiet.

A look at Buurman's tackle map shows that all but one of her interventions came down the left touchline, a position she occupied for most of the game.

'Veerle was probably, in my opinion, the best player on the pitch,' said Bompastor in her post-match press conference. 'For a young player like her, it just shows that sometimes it's a tricky balance to find because when you are at Chelsea, you have a lot of depth and talent in the squad.

'Sometimes you play more experienced players, but when you give the opportunity to young players to play minutes in many games, they can show how good they are. Veerle had the opportunity to play more since January. She has been performing at a really good level, and I'm really pleased with that.'

Effective use of Sam Kerr

As the average position graphic above shows, Bompastor went for the win when she introduced striker Sam Kerr in the 72nd minute of the match, as the Australian played the highest up the pitch of any other player.

Not only did Kerr break the deadlock within six minutes of her introduction, she also led the line perfectly as we battled to see out the win in extra time.

In her final appearance before heading off to play in the Asian Cup with the Matildas, Kerr registered the highest xG (expected goals) of any player in the match with a rating of 0.34, while she also created one chance for her team-mates, recovered the ball twice, and won four aerial duels.

We will, of course, face Manchester United in the first match back after the international break when we meet in the Women's League Cup final. Without Kerr and compatriot Ellie Carpenter, Bompastor will have to come up with a new tactical plan if we are to retain the trophy this season.